A Patient Emailed Me:

Hi Doc,

Should I be concerned and switch my anti-depressant since it’s on the list of medications potentially causing dementia?  I tried other medications in the past but they didn’t work as well & I felt awful and went back to Paxil.  I’ve been on it for 18 yrs now, so maybe it’s too late. 

Good news…I found my car keys and know where they go🚗

Sue

 

I Responded:

This is not a major concern…..there is a ‘questionable’ association…..but no proof of connection.

All medications have different kinds of ‘questionable’ statistical associations of different sorts….Advil/Aleve…..with stroke/heart attack…..……aspirin….with bleeding issues. The list is endless.

This is a ‘sexy’ topic…so it gets quite the attention, but the over-riding focus should be on the definitive benefits you are getting now. If they are definite in your mind, then you should continue to stay on the medication unless we hear clear-cut evidence.

D

 

PS…Driving your car is 10,000 times more risky then your medications.

If you did not received our new Summer Newsletter, you can read it here….

CLICK HERE!

 

For future Newsletters, you can register for your own personal copy….. Click Here!

 

Yours in good health,

Dr. Lakin & staff

The headline in the NYTimes today about the failing pediatric cardiac surgery program at University of North Carolina reminded me of back in training when, as a lark, we would call the operator of the hospital and ask them to page the wards for “Dr. HODAD”……

It would be early evening…and over the pager system throughout the hospital we would chuckle as we heard….” Paging Dr. Hodad…Paging Dr. Hodad…..please call the operator’.

We were juvenile back then and we liked having a bit of fun given the crazy hours we kept. Dr. Hodad was no Hopkins surgeon….the name stood for Hands Of Death And Destruction.

 

Yes….there were surgeons who were considered a danger to their patients, and we would affectionately call them Dr. HODAD..……there still are around no doubt. Fortunately, they are few and far between, but self-policing among medical professionals is notoriously tricky.

That is why you depend on your primary doctor to help you find the best specialists and surgeons to treat your conditions. It is often less about going to the right doctor, as opposed to avoiding the wrong one. Fortunately, there are few of those, but you need to avoid them…and depend on us to help you avoid such an event. Just ask.

‘Dear Patients,
This guide is one of a series of books meant to provide simple answers for day-to-day health questions.  It is my effort to pass on 55 years of wisdom accrued as a child of a physician and as a Johns Hopkins-trained internist with over 30 years in practice.  I hope this advice is helpful to you and your family.  It’s actually meant for my own.’

DoctorDoug

 

Paper copy available in our office or you can read it online….  Click Here!

I have been doing emails with patients for 25 years, about as soon as AOL got started.

 

Although I’ve changed my email once,
OLD: douglakin@aol.com to
Current:  douglakin@doctordoug.com,

you can always find your old emails from me by searching for “FROM THE DOC.”

 

I have signed my emails to patients in this manner for 25 years.  So…if you are looking for an old email from me to see labs or comments…just search on your old email file    “FROM THE DOC”

The international measles outbreak has rightly stirred concerns among the general public in the US, questioning their own protection and immunity against measles. Do I need to worry?

 

Here is the answer:

If you were born before 1957, then you did not get vaccinated…but you did get the measles with near certainty as there was no vaccine and the measles was ubiquitous throughout the US and was impossible to avoid. Because it is so very contagious, everyone (99% of people were infected) is essentially immune.

 

The modern measles since dose vaccine was begun in 1962 and carried out through 1967. This single dose immunization was approximately 90% effective, but immunity may have wained for this ‘notch group’….1957-1967. This group should consider testing for immunity with a blood test (Rubeola IgG testing…. Rubeola is the old name for measles)…or just get a booster of MMR. That is the other option.

 

Finally, for those after 1968 and later, they are immune based on having obtained the standard 2 dose measles vaccinination, which was the schedule developed for that birth-year and beyond. 1968 and beyond is also 99% effectively immune.

 

So…is you are in the notch group, you could consider a lab test or 2nd MMR vaccine.